Why Should you Study Industrial Engineering? Discover Top Facts and Take Perfect Decision!

Introduction 

Every year, thousands of students and their parents go through the same process - of deciding which branch of engineering they should select. A lot of anxiety and lots of advice and advisors. The more you talk to the more is the confusion. 

Selection of Branch

Most of the people select branches which are hot from the perception game. It is tough for anyone to decide 

what branch to select? 

What are the career prospects out there? 

Will the degree be worth it, 

and 

will it eventually help you get a good job?

And many make the most common and costly mistake: following the herd.

You start your degree course and by the time you're in the second year, you realise this wasn’t the right fit for you. Too late! You feel you'd wasted the degree and the golden years which you could have spent somewhere else.

So, here, I’m going to tell you about a branch, very few really know about and why you should consider it as a worthy choice. 

Salient Features of Industrial Engineering : Why Industrial Engineering?

It attracts countless international students annually. It promises the best of Engineering and Business. 

It gives you skills in the design, planning and optimisation of production and manufacturing processes. That’s the Industrial Engineering Bachelor’s degree.

The name ‘Industrial Engineer’ (IE) doesn’t really help to explain what it is. Many people have little or no idea of what it is, and the types of work industrial engineers do on a daily basis.

Industrial engineers determine the most effective ways to use the basic resources — people, machines, materials, space, information, and energy—to make a product or provide a service.

Industrial engineering is the study of the optimisation of complex processes or systems. They study the design, planning and optimisation of production and manufacturing processes as well as processes in service industries.

In addition to the preparation for immediate employment as a practising industrial engineer, the IE degree provides an excellent foundation for further study. 

This includes masters-level work in manufacturing fields for which a technical base is desirable. 

Other opportunities exist for further study in IT and management, where the combination of industrial engineering skills is uniquely valuable.

The field of industrial engineering has long been recognised as a prime source of management talent. 

Today’s competitive world needs managers and decision-makers who can apply mathematical concepts and scientific management techniques to the technical problems that arise. An industrial engineer not only understands these problems but is able to devise and implement methods to solve them.

Advantages of Studying Industrial Engineering

Studying Industrial Engineering is flexible - 

you can pursue a more technical route

Can take more management-oriented path

customise your approach to Industrial Engineering.

Flexibility of updating curriculum

Growing need of IE in industry

Cost breakeven analysis

Work study

Method study

Scientific Management approach to any industrial activities

Four reasons to study Industrial Engineering:

• Industrial Engineers Work in every sector: you will find Industrial Engineers at most companies and in many sectors. This means that you will find a job easily after graduation.

• Technical skills and business knowledge: They also study business management subjects as part of their industrial engineering programmes. You will gain a good grasp of the business side of a company.

• Focus on processes: Industrial engineering is more focused on processes and finding ways to improve processes through strategies such as cost reduction, savings and reducing timings.

• Apply data Analytics: Big data is a growing field and most companies want to make better business decisions by making use of complex chunks of data. Industrial engineering provides you with the foundations for working in this domain.

Solutions given by Industrial engineers :

 

• Determining the best location of machines in a factory, or ambulance stations in a metropolitan area, or a new factory in the U.S., based on economic and operational considerations; designing computer-aided process planning systems that flexibly vary the sequence of operations to produce a product

• Determining which types of jobs are most suitable for special populations of workers, such as the elderly and the handicapped

• Developing a system for controlling the inventory levels of a product in a warehouse, books in a bookstore, or gasoline at a service station

• Designing automated material handling systems for the movement of parts in a factory

• Designing a mission management plan for payload specialists on the NASA space shuttle

• Designing computer-integrated manufacturing systems and decision support systems for integrating information and control between manufacturing systems, automated guided vehicles, automated warehouse facilities, and management personnel

• Designing a new plan for scheduling cases to operating rooms in a hospital, or production orders in a factory

• Determining the optimal routing of ambulances through a city, or material handling vehicles in a factory, to minimise travel time

• Developing reliability and quality management systems to ensure that a manufactured product is free from defects

• Developing programs for analysing human reliability to assess workplace safety

• Designing computer graphics systems to assist operators in the monitoring and control of industrial processes

Customise your degree to match your interests

As an industrial engineer, you will always have options to explore and work in different job roles. You will have many elective subjects as per your interests and the area you’re passionate about.

• Want to sit at a computer doing deep data analysis? There are industrial engineering jobs in data analysis and business analysis.

• Want to work on a production floor doing manufacturing work? There are jobs in logistics engineering, manufacturing engineering, production, forecasting, among many others.

• Want to travel while you work? Consider industrial engineering jobs in consulting and client-facing roles. There are plenty of other options – these are just a few examples.

Some prospective careers that await you are :

• Service industries

• Logistics providers

• Manufacturing industries

• Consulting, IT and engineering services

• Research and development firms

• Wholesale trade